This post is part of a series of posts designed to help you acquire a loan for your small business. The following posts cover methods for public financing of your small business

Small Business Investment Companies

The SBA licenses, regulates and provides financial assistance to privately owned and operated Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) whose major function is to make venture investments by supplying equity capital and extending unsecured loans and loans not fully collateralized to small enterprises which meet their investment criteria. SBICs are privately capitalized and obtain financial leverage from the SBA. The administration of the SBIC program is handled by the SBA Central Office in Washington, D.C. A list of the Minnesota SBICs can be found in the Resource Directory section of this Guide.

Microloans

The purpose of the SBA’s Microloan program is to assist women, low-income individuals, minority entrepreneurs and business owners, and other individuals possessing the capability to operate successful business concerns and to assist small business concerns in those areas defined by the SBA as economically distressed areas.

The SBA is authorized under this program to make direct loans to eligible and qualified intermediary lenders who will use those loan proceeds to make short-term, fixed-interest rate loans to start-up, newly established and growing small business concerns. The loans can range in amount from a few hundred dollars to as much as $50,000. Further, the SBA may make grants to the eligible and qualified intermediary lenders to be used to provide intensive marketing, management, and technical assistance to their borrowers.

In Minnesota, six intermediaries have been approved and can be contacted regarding the details of their respective programs. The name, address, telephone number, and service areas of each such intermediary is listed in the Resource Directory section of this Guide.

USDA Rural Development

Rural Business-Cooperative Service
375 Jackson Street, Suite 410
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101-1853
(651) 602-7791
www.rurdev.usda.gov/mn

A list of USDA Rural Development Field offices can be found in the Resource Directory section of this Guide.

CREDITS: This is an excerpt from A Guide to Starting a Business in Minnesota, provided by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Small Business Assistance Office, Twenty-eighth Edition, January 2010, written by Charles A. Schaffer, Madeline Harris, and Mark Simmer. Copies are available without charge from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Small Business Assistance Office.